The Secondary School
The decision to build the Secondary School and to seek donor funding for this was taken by the GMCDG in September 2006. By the end of January 2007, the first classroom block had been built and furnished, teachers had been recruited and 112 children had been enrolled in Form 1. All the essential classroom buildings were completed on schedule and within budget by 2010, the year in which the first pupils graduated.
The management of the school was passed by the Community to the Department of Education which meets most running costs and employs the staff. Until now external donors have continued to finance a GMCDG-managed programme of bursaries and scholarships to enable children from poor families to attend the school. This will be phased out and replaced by a locally financed programme, funded mainly by former alumni.
The School has an excellent performance record and reputation. It now has 1240 enrolled pupils and, with a current annual intake rate of 400 pupils, extra classrooms and ancillary facilities are desperately needed. GMCDG has accepted the School’s request for help in raising external funds for part of this expansion and is exploring potential new sources of finance for this.
The Institute Of Technology
From the outset, it was envisaged that the Secondary School should offer some training courses in practical skills, but this could not be fitted into the standard curriculum. In 2012, when the financing needs of the Secondary School began to fall, the Community opened a 2-year diploma course in dressmaking and tailoring and began the registration of the Got Matar Institute of Technology (IoT) as a financially sustainable community-managed institution. Since then, 11 more courses have been added to respond to local demand.
In order to allow the IoT to grow quickly and to reduce risks, all courses were initially run in rented buildings. Since 2017, the IoT has been constructing and equipping purpose-built training workshops on its campus on land provided by the Community. Ten new workshops have been completed and 2 more will soon be opened.
The splendid new computer training centre was opened in January 2022 and two phases of a girls’ hostel have been opened and are fully occupied by 80 boarders. Because of COVID restrictions, IoT diploma course student numbers stalled in 2021 at 230 but have risen to 333 on 2023, of whom 230 are girls.
Donations
The origins of external financial assistance to Got Matar date from Andrew MacMillan’s first visit to Bondo in 2000 in connection with his work with the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Once GMCDG had been set up, he and his extended family made occasional donations towards upgrading the Primary Schools. In 2006, after his retirement, he accepted the Community’s formal invitation to raise funds for its educational programmes. Rather than set up a new charity, he sought to engage in partnerships for the management of donations with existing registered NGOs with similar goals. Following a fruitful initial partnership with PEAS (Promoting Education in African Schools), which has now built 30 secondary schools in Uganda and 4 in Zambia, we entered into an agreement in 2012 with Ace Africa (UK) as our partner registered charity. It administers funds collected from donors in the UK and elsewhere and transfers them to GMCDG through Ace Africa (Kenya) which operates an impressive community support programme in Western Kenya, including the area around Got Matar. Their staff have been most helpful in sharing their experiences with GMCDG and have assisted in improving its management systems.
In order to assure Euro Zone donors that their gifts to Got Matar will continue to be competently managed, duly issued with receipts and promptly transferred to GMCDG, Salvatore Fabrizio has kindly agreed that the NGO that he founded to support projects in Kenya will, as of now, take over as GMCDG’s Euro Zone partner registered charity.
To read about how to send donations to Got Matar, please read the section on Making Donations:
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